Today, President Obama spoke again about the country’s need for an all-of-the-above U.S. energy strategy. Speaking to a cheering crowd of supporters in Largo, MD, the President stated that the country needs an energy future that incorporates domestic oil and gas with wind and solar, on top of increased efficiency. In other words, the country needs it all.

In the President’s remarks, he stated that “…critical to our long-term success is the question of energy. How do we use less energy? How do we produce more energy right here in the United States of America.”

These statements echo earlier comments by the President. On March 7, he told a North Carolina audience that:

“We’re not going to be able to just drill our way out of the problem of high gas prices…If we are going to control our energy future, then we’ve got to have an all-of-the-above strategy. We’ve got to develop every source of American energy—not just oil and gas, but wind power and solar power, nuclear power, biofuels.”

Earlier this week, Scientific American’s David Biello published a piece where he explored this “all-of-the-above” approach to U.S. energy in a discussion with Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu. In this piece, Biello and Chu explore the concept of energy independence and the biggest cost drivers in our energy systems, including climate change. They also engage in a lively banter regarding new technologies – and the potential for America to continue to lead as the world’s great innovator. You can find the entire story here – including a extensive discussion in the comments area.

About the Author: An engineer and researcher who works at the intersection of energy, environment, technology, and policy. Follow on Twitter @mclott.

1 Comment

It saddens me when Big Oil’s magazine outlet assigns a pup stenographer to copy down their latest infomercial. Even sadder that Obama and Chu have sold out to Big Oil to the point that America’s energy policy is set for the benefit of Big Oil and Chu is forced to participate in this blatant propaganda piece.

I guess whats good for Chevron/Exxon is good for the USA.

Chu lies: ” Natural gas as a transition fuel is great. It’s half the [carbon dioxide emissions]. We still need to figure out how to capture its carbon, which we need by mid-century no matter what the large source is [whether coal, oil or natural gas].”

Real peer reviewed science published in reputable journal shows that when production and transport methane leaks are added in Gas is actually a worse warming initiator than coal with similar GHG emission levels.

We don’t need to figger out how to capture its carbon as nuke power is already by far the cheapest form of energy. Yup lets add deadly CO2 leaks to the massive carbon dump from methane leaks.

More Chu lies:” Wind is now pegged at 7.2 to 7.5 cents per kilowatt-hour at a levelized cost of energy ”

This is of course after subsidy.

Actually “nuclear” power at 3 cents a kwh is the the cheapest from of energy in America but of course now that Chu is on Big Oil’s payroll the word is verboten.

Wind costs more than 30 cents a kwh when 5 times sized transmission plant and low efficiency load balancing deadly filthy GHG spewing gas plant run inefficiently at 100% name plant capacity is added killing hundreds of citizens annually from air pollution and producing almost all the energy in the wind/gas backup scam Add 55 cents for solar and a buck a kwh for Green storage.

Real solar install just completed by expert engineers at Duke Energy using real solar panels not the Walmart quality Chinese junk with the same service life as everything else you buy at Walmart in service Jan 2011